Christian Mysticism and Inter-Religious dialouge: Part I

Contemplation is the highest expression of [human] intellectual and spiritual life. . . . It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being.
Too frequently, the world's religions regard each other with suspicion and condescension. At the heart of these sorrows lie assumptions and inaccuracies on all sides. What is the solution? How can the adherents of the religions learn to approach one another with open hearts and minds? Love is the solution. How, then, can religious seekers, seekers of peace among the religions, experience the ultimate Love, which softens the hardened heart and bubbles up as refreshing waters of life from human vessels into the world? For many, a most practical approach is contemplative practice in which one responds to the mysterious Source of “spontaneous awe.”

Christian mysticism has a richly textured, ancient tradition. Western Christianity owes a debt of gratitude to Eastern religions for the relatively recent influx of contemplative disciplines that have prodded Christians to awaken to their own mystical tradition. With the invaluable aid of Christian guides such as Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and Bede Griffiths, Christianity continues to experience a contemplative renewal that promises individual and collective transformation beyond isolated doctrinal exclusivism.

Increasingly, Christians seek an awareness of their role among the world's vibrant religious traditions. Indeed, the contemplative life grants the seeker an experiential vision of union with the Divine and with all of created reality. This is the "first fruit" from which all other more apparent fruits are harvested. One person's historical and cultural experiences will not necessarily resonate with someone from another culturally conditioned religious tradition. The simple hope is to engage in a form of dialogue in which one might lay an offering upon a table already laden with a bounty of exquisite delights. The radical foundation of Christian mysticism presents an ever-creative source that transports Christian participation in interfaith encounter along the wings of Divine grace and love. Ultimately, mystery, grace and love inspire Christian contemplation.

According to The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, contemplation is more than discursive meditation. Contemplation is “a way of making oneself aware of the presence of God who is always there.”

Contemplative practice and mystical experience is shrouded in mystery. "[Y]ou will never desire to possess [contemplative prayer] until that which is ineffable and unknowable moves you to desire the ineffable and unknowable." The Christian contemplative responds to God's grace, God's Self-giving. At the heart of Christianity is love. The Christ event is a message in praxis of love--God's love for humanity. Indeed, all reality is infused, inspired, with this mystery. For the Christian contemplative, love becomes the only reality. The author of The Cloud of Unknowing writes:

This is the unending miracle of love: that one loving person, through his love, can embrace God, whose being fills and transcends the entire creation. And this marvelous work of love goes on forever, for he whom we love is eternal.

Contemplative prayer is a response to Divine invitation. Contemplation is the way of union with the Source of love, the Source that is Love. Along the unitive way, one's interior experience is that the whole of reality, empirical or not, is an interrelated complex with a transcendent Source. For Christians, that source is God, the Absolute who, simultaneously, is personally immanent to the most obscure detail.

Christians accept separation from God as a universal cause of human suffering. Grounded in Love, contemplation is a way to discover community rather than the rampant dualistic sorrow of separation. With foundational integration, exclusivism, in any of its myriad and sinister forms, becomes increasingly difficult to defend. The human heart is transformed in and by God's love. When such an open heart approaches another, how can love not transform the encounter?

In practical terms, what does this mean? Ultimately, the contemplative way is a most practical means by which one may grow into the practice of love and may know "the peace that passes understanding." Each Christian is summoned, in the sense of vocation, to dispose herself or himself to God's grace. Only by this mysterious source of at-one-ment, can Christians communicate with anyone, let alone with someone from another religious tradition. Practically, contemplative life transforms dogmatism (in which even the well-intended indulge) to an more enlightened perspective.

The Christian contemplative more deeply cherishes his or her religious tradition and becomes attuned to another's faith--a precious gift within the dialogic encounter. Christians are not alone in the need to tear down the walls erected across all human history. Fr. Thomas Keating cautions that all of the world's religions recognize the broken human condition. For the Hindu, it is maya. For the Buddhist, the Four Noble Truths posit suffering humanity and the causes and cure for suffering. The world's religions guide believers along diverse paths to liberation. Yet, at bottom, however uniquely and creatively defined, the religions share a remarkable characteristic. Fr. Keating writes: